Connecting Youth through Multiple Pathways

[pdf] This report, developed by Dana Brinson, Bryan Hassel and Jacob Rosch for the education program at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, explores some of the efforts districts, foundations and nonprofit organizations have made at reconnecting vulnerable youth who have fallen off track. It covers the rationale behind and development of multiple pathways to graduation and provides examples from municipalities that have developed promising programs to engage youth in school and social networks that will prepare them for careers and post-secondary education.

Demystifying Special Education in Virtual Charter Schools

This report, by Lauren Morando Rhim and Julie Kowal, describes how educating students with disabilities in virtual charter schools entails not only molding state charter school laws to fit a specialized type of charter school, but also adapting federal and state special education guidelines aimed at providing special education in traditional brick and mortar settings. This special report, funded by the USDOE National Initiatives Grant of the Charter Schools Program and administered by the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, is a supplement to a series of special education primers, Primers on Special Education in Charter Schools, created to inform state officials, authorizers and charter school operators about special education in the charter sector.

Exploring Success in the Charter Sector: Case Studies of Six Charter Schools Engaged in Promising Practices for Children with Disabilities

[pdf] Ideally, charter developers use autonomy extended by state charter school laws to develop new robust educational options for all children, including children with disabilities. This report, written by Lauren Morando Rhim and Dana Brinson for the Center on Reinventing Public Education, presents findings from exploratory case studies of six charter schools identified due to their reported success educating children with disabilities. Collectively, they provide insight into practices that hold promise for educating children with disabilities in both traditional and charter public schools striving to develop high quality special education programs. Recurring school characteristics observed include a powerful school mission that incorporated a commitment to including children with disabilities, professional development that supported meaningful access to the general education curriculum for all students, highly individualized programs for all students that ‘normalized” special education, and easy transferability of the practices to traditional public schools.

Rethinking Special Education Accountability

[pdf] Bryan Hassel co-authored two articles with Patrick J. Wolf about making the nation’s special education system more outcome-oriented and less procedure oriented. The first, Effectiveness and Accountability (Part 1): The Compliance Model and the second, Effectiveness and Accountability (Part 2): Alternatives to the Compliance Model [pdf] both appear in the book jointly published by the Progressive Policy Institute and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.

Special Education Challenges and Opportunities in the Charter School Sector

[pdf] Ensuring the growth of successful charter schools requires special attention to a variety of challenges associated with providing high-quality specialized services to children with disabilities, such as lack of clarity about legal responsibilities, limited access to existing state support structures, and limited technical capacity to provide specialized services. This report, written by Lauren Morando Rhim for the Center on Reinventing Public Education, explores these challenges and examines potential opportunities to grow quality charter schools that have as a feature promising or innovative approaches to educating children with disabilities. Opportunities include advocacy to clarify existing laws and change laws that hinder charter schools’ efforts to develop quality special education programs, research to document how charter school operators are using their autonomy to craft potentially unique new instructional programs, and investments in building technical assistance networks and charter school infrastructures are essential. The multiple policy, research, and investment opportunities outlined can help pave the way for growing high-quality charter schools that successfully educate all children.

Youth at High Risk of Disconnection: A data update of Michael Wald and Tia Martinez’s Connected by 25: Improving the Life Chances of the Country’s Most Vulnerable 14-24 Year Olds

[pdf] Nearly every young adult who experiences long-term disconnection—from work, school, and community—falls into one or more of the following groups before age 19: teen in foster care, juvenile justice involved, teen mother, or high school dropout. This report, developed by Jacob Rosch, Dana Brinson and Bryan Hassel for the education program at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, is an update of Michael Wald and Tia Martinez’s 2003 Connected by 25 research. This data update provides the most-recent available estimates of these four teen populations and shares additional information about the changes in these populations, possible trends for the future, and the impact of these changes on the services designed to intervene with and support these vulnerable youth.

White House Commission on Excellence in Special Education. Bryan Hassel was appointed to this 19-member national commission, which issued its report [pdf] in 2003. Dr. Hassel helped the Commission develop its recommendations on making special education accountability more results-based.